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Standards-based grading holding at sixth-grade level; board president prepares to ‘move on’
Lawrence Journal World ^ | November 30, 2011 | Mark Fagan

Posted on 12/01/2011 5:25:19 PM PST by BigDaddyTX

Mark Bradford, president of the school board, generated some tension when he discussed the district’s plans for standards-based grading at the sixth-grade level.

And teachers who may not like it, he suggested, essentially would have a choice to make — just as people decide where they want to live, or where they might choose to work.

“Once the decision is made on how we’re going to do grading in this school district," he said, “then that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Kim Beeler, a parent from Southwest who has been critical of standards-based grading in middle school, quickly stood up and accused Bradford of “bullying” the district by suggesting that teachers could “choose to work here.”

“It’s not fair,” said Beeler, who referred to 30 teachers having signed a letter opposing the grading system for sixth-graders. “There’s a real disconnect with the teachers. This is our town, and our schools that we pay money for. It’s really frustrating to hear that.”

Bradford stood his ground: “I’m just saying: When the decision is made about which way we’re going to go, if you want to work here, that’s how you have to do it.”

Beeler described Bradford’s attitude as “insulting,” especially considering that the district didn’t schedule any teachers opposed to the system as speakers during the forum.

Bradford assured Beeler and others that his thoughts reflected a simple reality.

“We have to move on,” he said. “We could have teachers from both sides here, (and) it’s not going to change anything. But a decision has got to be made, if you’re a teacher, on what we’re going to do so we can move on.”

(Excerpt) Read more at 2.ljworld.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Kansas; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: education; sbg; standardsbased
This year is the first year 6th graders have been moved up to "Middle School" to be with 7th and 8th graders. Prior to this year they were at Elem. schools receiving both traditional letter grades and Standards-Based Grading (M,E,S...) There are many issues at hand here, lack of community involvement in the decision by the board to introduce SBG into Middle School, lack of training for the teachers to be able to effectively use SBG, lack of continuity/consistency in the use of SBG.

Round Rock, TX was in a very similar situation this year and very recently put an end to the implementation of SBG in both middle school and high school. http://roundrockisd.org/index.aspx?recordid=2606&page=3400

I’ve been trying to learn about SBG recently and have researched information on two of the main experts I’ve seen referenced, Robert J. Marzano and Ken O’Connor.

SBG specifically separates behavior from teaching/learning of standards in order to better determine the students’ actual knowledge of the standards. The argument is that a student who received an F in Chemistry could actually know the subject but has been penalized for behavior issues that resulted in the lower grade. Likewise a student could have an A in that class and not know the subject but received enough “extra credit” (their favorite example is extra credit for bringing tissue boxes) to bring their grade up to an A.

I found this web seminar by O’Connor that describes “15 Fixes for Broken Grades” http://www.assessmentinst.com/15-fixes-for-broken-grades/ items 1-6 are as follows:

1) Don't include student behaviors (effort, participation, adherence to class rules, etc) in grades; include only achievement.

2) Don't reduce marks on "work" submitted late; provide support for the learner.

3) Don't give points for extra credit or use bonus points; seek only evidence that more work has resulted in a higher level of achievement.

4) Don't punish academic dishonesty with reduced grades; apply other consequences and reassess to determine actual level of achievement.

5) Don't consider attendance in grade determination; report absences separately.

6) Don't include group scores in grades; use only individual achievement evidence.

1 posted on 12/01/2011 5:25:27 PM PST by BigDaddyTX
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To: BigDaddyTX

In response to number 4: If the work is copied or plagiarized, how does one reassess the work to determine actual level of achievement? The achievement is not the students. The achievement belongs to someone else, does it not?


2 posted on 12/01/2011 5:30:25 PM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: BigDaddyTX

#4 is a bad idea. real bad.


3 posted on 12/01/2011 5:42:13 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: goodwithagun

Re-do’s and don’t count zero’s...

From: Marzano Teleconference October 9, 2009 David Yanoski
http://asdsbar.wikispaces.com/

“Zeros on assignments: If you give a zero on an assignment because the student did not do it, then it generates inaccurate data. This process is intended to measure student learning. When a zero is given for a missed assignment, the zero is not assessing “learning.” Assess responsibility in a different way – life skills, work habits. Don’t penalize kids by giving the zeros for not doing their work.”


4 posted on 12/01/2011 5:43:36 PM PST by BigDaddyTX (Don't Mex with Texas)
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To: BigDaddyTX
“Zeros on assignments: If you give a zero on an assignment because the student did not do it, then it generates inaccurate data. This process is intended to measure student learning. When a zero is given for a missed assignment, the zero is not assessing “learning.” Assess responsibility in a different way – life skills, work habits. Don’t penalize kids by giving the zeros for not doing their work.”

How about we just dump the entire Department of Education and the public school system in its liberal communist psychobabble politically correct entirety, give out vouchers and make laws forbidding charging more than the vouchers per grade, and let the free market get rid of the millions of worthess, screaming, mind-controlled, rock-stupid political cronies called "public school teachers." And oh yeah - hang ALL of the public school administrators first.

5 posted on 12/01/2011 5:59:30 PM PST by Talisker (History will show the Illuminati won the ultimate Darwin Award.)
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To: BigDaddyTX

It’s got to be pure accident that any kid graduates from public school that is not functionally ignorant.


6 posted on 12/01/2011 6:21:57 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet (There's a pill for just about everything ... except stupid!)
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To: BigDaddyTX

The thing fundamentally wrong about this is that it gives the kid all the power and forces the teacher to work around misbehaving and deliberately abusing-the-system students.

Part of the grade is getting assignments done when they are due. Learning certain things in a certain amount of time. Because these are skills that you need to do work and get tasks done in certain periods of time. Showing up to class or work on time when expected. Doing work or studying during designated times.

It’s putting the insane in charge of the asylum. Kids needs an external authority that gives structure. Not this crap.


7 posted on 12/01/2011 8:14:32 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

Any math experts out here? If so, I need help understanding this.

SBG and Marzano depend on the “Power Law” as a non-linear function that emphasizes trending versus averaging because averaging isn’t fair. “The average of scores penalizes the student for not knowing anything at the beginning of a unit. The average score will artificially drag down a student’s score.”

Power function:

RT = aP-b + c Exponential function:

RT = ae-b(P-1) + c Where

RT = Trial Completion TimeP = Trial Number, starting from 1 (for exponential functions the P-1 argument is used)a, b, and c, are constants

I find it very interesting that the “Power Law” (law… as in a proven constant i.e. Newton’s law…) itself is called into question due to the use of AVERAGING.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Law_of_Practice

“However, subsequent research by Heathcote, Brown, and Mewhort (2000) suggests that the power function observed in learning curves that are averaged across participants is an artifact of aggregation. Heathcote et al. suggest that individual-level data is better fit by an exponential function and the authors demonstrate that the multiple exponential curves will average to produce a curve that is misleadingly well fit by a power function.”

www.newcl.org/publications/20thcentury/powerlaw.pdf

“The power function is treated as the law relating response time to practice trials. However, the evidence for a power law is flawed, because it is based on averaged data.”


8 posted on 12/02/2011 9:00:42 AM PST by BigDaddyTX (Don't Mex with Texas)
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To: goodwithagun; GeronL
re: #4: it says "4) Don't punish academic dishonesty with reduced grades; apply other consequences and reassess to determine actual level of achievement".

Meaning, apply consequences for the dishonesty, and then MAKE HIM DO THE WORK OVER, or do another assignment of comparable difficulty, (supervised to ensure he gets no outside help) to see how HIS work is.

9 posted on 12/02/2011 9:06:29 AM PST by PapaBear3625 (During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.)
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To: PapaBear3625

I do see #4 as a tool to drill down and determine the students actual level of understanding of the topic but there is no follow up on the “other consequences”. This works for little kids but at what point to you start preparing them for the grown-up world?


10 posted on 12/02/2011 9:24:52 AM PST by BigDaddyTX (Don't Mex with Texas)
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To: PapaBear3625

Cheating should reduce the grades not just make them do it over.


11 posted on 12/02/2011 12:04:01 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

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